Provoke
Provoke magazine is a Japanese magazine that contained 3 issues that where originally published in 1968. The photographers of this series where Yutaka Takanashi and Takuma Nakahira along side Diado Moriyama who joined in the second issue of the books and is most famous for this. The writer of the books was Takahiko Okada. The reason they published and created these books was to express how they felt about the war without having to put it into words as they believe that the use of words are losing their meaning so people need a different way to express their opinions and desires. |
Daido Moriyama
Moriyama is a Japanese photographer who takes pictures as an expression of his desires and in the 1960's he joined the provoke project to add to the second addition of the trilogy. He has been taking pictures since he was very young and has a specific style as without a city he states he would not be able to photograph. Moriyama takes pictures on a compact camera because he believes it doesn't make people feel as uncomfortable as when people shoot on a big camera. Moriyama states that he needs the city to take pictures as this is where his desires are. He also likes taking pictures in the city as he likes to walk fast and take snapshots of the movement from himself and the outside world. He believes photographs are a slice of a moment in time and his snapshots are all about instant moments that happen. He states that his work represents his own kind of home by connecting things from his imagination to things from his childhood; this is because he says when he was younger he never really had a specific place to call home as he was always moving around a lot. Moriyama enjoys the cities but also wanders the back streets as he believes there are intriguing things there. He enjoys editing his images into black and white as it thinks it makes them look erotic and can tell whether it is a good photo by the way his body reacts to it. He also enjoys using monochrome as he believes it makes the elements of abstractism and symbolism stronger.
Moriyama is a Japanese photographer who takes pictures as an expression of his desires and in the 1960's he joined the provoke project to add to the second addition of the trilogy. He has been taking pictures since he was very young and has a specific style as without a city he states he would not be able to photograph. Moriyama takes pictures on a compact camera because he believes it doesn't make people feel as uncomfortable as when people shoot on a big camera. Moriyama states that he needs the city to take pictures as this is where his desires are. He also likes taking pictures in the city as he likes to walk fast and take snapshots of the movement from himself and the outside world. He believes photographs are a slice of a moment in time and his snapshots are all about instant moments that happen. He states that his work represents his own kind of home by connecting things from his imagination to things from his childhood; this is because he says when he was younger he never really had a specific place to call home as he was always moving around a lot. Moriyama enjoys the cities but also wanders the back streets as he believes there are intriguing things there. He enjoys editing his images into black and white as it thinks it makes them look erotic and can tell whether it is a good photo by the way his body reacts to it. He also enjoys using monochrome as he believes it makes the elements of abstractism and symbolism stronger.
There are many ways you could describe Moriyama's work: abstract, atmospheric, random, intense, erotic, eery, personal, zoomed, movement, instant, anxious, spontaneous, black and white, busy, gritty etc. Moriyama took all of his images to please himself and express his desires through photos. He tries not to think or look or choose what he is photographing but just take them according to what he believes to be intriguing. This leads to Moriyama not typically sticking to what is perceived to be right such as in focus photos; we can see this by the graininess and blurriness of some of his photos.
Yutaka Takanashi
Takanashi is also a Japanese photographer that is best known for his deception of tokyo but also shoots fashion, urban design and city life photography. Much like Moriyama he prefers to have his images in black and white and this creates many of the same effects as Moriyama's images. Many of Takanashi's images looks mysterious and eerie and are not particularly shot right i.e are not in focus or are pixelated. This is mainly because he wanted to do to his images what the war had done to Japan (distort them). Takanashi takes many photos within cities where there is a lot of movement but he also has images of landscapes and areas that look isolated meaning he sees more to photography than being in the city unlike Moryiama who states he needs the city for his photography to thrive. Takanashi's images are not as explicit as Moryiama's are and he tends to take more pictures of people doing particular tasks or things that look pretty interesting rather than focusing on women or certain features that he might find desirable on a women.
Takanashi is also a Japanese photographer that is best known for his deception of tokyo but also shoots fashion, urban design and city life photography. Much like Moriyama he prefers to have his images in black and white and this creates many of the same effects as Moriyama's images. Many of Takanashi's images looks mysterious and eerie and are not particularly shot right i.e are not in focus or are pixelated. This is mainly because he wanted to do to his images what the war had done to Japan (distort them). Takanashi takes many photos within cities where there is a lot of movement but he also has images of landscapes and areas that look isolated meaning he sees more to photography than being in the city unlike Moryiama who states he needs the city for his photography to thrive. Takanashi's images are not as explicit as Moryiama's are and he tends to take more pictures of people doing particular tasks or things that look pretty interesting rather than focusing on women or certain features that he might find desirable on a women.
Takuma Nakahira was also a Japanese photographer but also a photo critic. Not surprisingly his photos were also similar to Moriyama and Takanashi with all of them in black and white and making people feel on edge. The reason why all of the photos from each photographer are very similar is because they are all motivated to take pictures by the same thing: portraying the world as it really is and revealing the scars that are left behind after events such as war.
My images inspired by Diado Moriyama:
Notes made in class:
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The way in which I tried to get my images like Moriyama's was by using the provoke app which I downloaded onto my iPhone 7. I then tried to used some ideas from his photos such as animals, people and explicit photos to make them similar to his. Some of the photos I have taken do kinda resemble Moriyama's style for example, the one of the chest and girls leg. Also, the pictures that include people and are busy, ones that are close up and also the pictures that are of the animals are close to Moriyama's. However, I do believe my images are not very similar to Moriyama's as he has taken most of his in the city where as mine were mainly in a forest area. I believe I could better resemble Moriyama's pictures if I went up to central London and took pictures in the packed streets.
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